Thank you, and...

This week marks the last time (barring some kind of urgent circumstance) that the 2021-2025 Edmonton City Council will convene. After we adjourn, the nomination period begins, and with less than 30 days out from next municipal election, it’s time to start wrapping up the term.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to the residents who elected me to represent west Edmonton and who put their faith in me to represent their values and interests on City Council. It is an enormous privilege and responsibility to work on behalf of the people that you grew up with in the city that you grew up in. Jobs may come and go, but you only get one hometown, and it’s been the honour of a lifetime to represent mine.

I also want to thank the 13,000+ city staff who, day in and day out, do the hard work of making our city function. Much of that work goes unseen — payroll gets processed, waste gets removed, green shacks open. For as much as you will hear this election season about things not working, it’s important to acknowledge the many ways it does work, every day, without fanfare.

I have also had the extraordinary privilege of working with some of the best council staff. At the risk of embarrassing them all over again, I want to thank the people who have also served the residents of west Edmonton for the past eight years — Liam, Brian, Elizabeth, Asia, Justin, Roxanne and Graham. They’ve become an extended family to me, and are the people most folks often interface with first. I am exceptionally grateful for their knowledge, their compassion, and their kindness. Having worked as a political staffer myself, I know it’s not easy to live by the political fortunes of your employer. I also admire the dedication each of them has brought to the role, and the wisdom they have shared with me and others.

Last, I will forever be grateful to my mother, my brother, my father, and my husband for being my most fervent champions through this entire journey. The people closest to you are simultaneously your biggest supporters and your sharpest critics, and the people around me have handled that role well — telling me the things I needed to hear when I needed to hear it.

GIF of the results watch at my 2017 campaign office. I truly thought my campaign manager was about to tell me I had lost. Courtesy of Christine Myatt.

One of my good friends wrote a text to me on election night in 2017: “it’ll be lots of work, horribly frustrating and you’ll champion some really cool shit. I believe that. You know to stay humble, and to see this as a privilege. The photos of your genuine excitement are proof of that.”

I like to revisit messages like this sometimes because it reminds of how it felt in 2017, and at various times along the way. He was right — it has been lots of work, horribly frustrating, and unbelievably cool. 

I didn’t take the (very good) advice to keep a journal. Instead, I have a compendium of notes, calendars, and photos, which help inform my own recollections of the last eight years. It makes a very spotty record, but nonetheless has been bittersweet to sort through.

Newly elected Councillors with Mayor Don Iveson at 630 CHED Radio, October 18, 2017. Look at those baby faces!

In the year I started, micro-mobility (aka e-scooters) was arriving in municipalities. I’m grateful that I got to be part of the Council that brought this in, but also recognise that it took a few years to get the service attenuated to the needs and customs of our residents (aka sidewalk riding and parking, volumes and service areas, etc). I know it was a bit of a challenging transition at times, but whenever I see a group of young people riding through the city late at night, I think about how that experience didn’t exist 10 years ago, and how that will shape their transportation choices, and their memories. That started with a city policy, here in the hallways of City Hall.

Testing out the new Lime Scooters at City Hall.

I think about the COVID-19 pandemic – a lot – and how it threw off course many of our best laid plans. For our city, it meant accelerating some of the harder turns for both people and businesses, something we are still recovering from. And while just about every municipality in North America is also struggling with these realities, for whatever reason it just feels harder here, with less clarity on how we come out on the other side. It also burned out a lot of really good folks, both elected and non-elected. It made many more people re-prioritise their lives. Public health authorities still remind us seasonally that COVID is still with us; it's true both pathologically and publicly. It changed things for us overnight, and while we like to think things “went back” to the way they were, we can all probably list 10 things that never did.

Now look at that baby face! Election night photo, mid-pandemic with my six week old son, August. Courtesy of Sean Amato via X/Twitter.

Leadership is a lonely journey down a winding path, somewhat like parenthood; as much as you can prepare for it, read up on it, and be in proximity to it, it will invariably throw you for a turn. As Joe Louis said, everyone has a plan until you get hit. How you respond to that turn, that hit, is character. One of the biggest learnings I take away from this role is that just about anyone of substance understands this truth, and for that I will always have a profound respect – even when at ideological odds. There is rarely a cut-and-dry decision in front of you; my only experience with that is in an emergency. Most material decisions have nuance, folks who benefit, and folks who don’t. How you weigh those decisions is informed by your experience, your values, and the information before you. It isn’t easy on the best days, never mind when stressed or sleep-deprived, or when you’re facing down five other decisions before noon. 

I wrote about the accomplishments I am most proud of when I announced I wasn’t seeking re-election, but still there is work that I wish we weren’t handing off to the next council. Over the next few weeks as I transition out of this role and into life again as a private citizen, I will share some of the challenges—and opportunities— ahead for the next mayor and council. I’ll post on my blog and on my substack, where you can continue to follow me through this transition. I also hope to post more about cultural and leadership issues at large; a nod to my roots as an arts and culture writer. I am not planning a return to public life in the immediate future, but I’m not going far. After all, this is my hometown.